South African President Thabo Mbeki on Saturday downplayed the election standoff between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition in Zimbabwe, saying there was "no crisis" just as an emergency summit on the issue got under way in Zambia, according to DPA. Speaking after talks with Mugabe in the Zimbabwean capital Harare, Mbeki said the country's tense post-election deadlock, caused by a two-week wait for the results of presidential elections, was not a crisis and urged further patience. Mbeki, the region's mediator in Zimbabwe, stopped over in Harare to meet Mugabe on his way to the Zambian capital Lusaka, where leaders of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community are gathering to discuss the tensions in Zimbabwe. Mugabe is boycotting the summit because his party also deems there is no crisis, a spokesman said Friday. He is being represented in Lusaka by several of his ministers, included reappointed justice minister Patrick Chinamasa.
